100 Favorite Dishes: Bison Pastrami at To the Wind Bistro

No. 50: Bison Pastrami at To the Wind Bistro Well-edited. That's how we'd describe To the Wind Bistro, the restaurant from husband-and-wife Royce Oliveira and Leanne Adamson. The space is snug but smartly appointed, the wine list short but well-curated, and the menu brief but long on winners — no easy feat, given that it changes seasonally.

We're firmly in fall now, and so current dishes are designed to steel you against cool nights. Take, for instance, the bison pastrami, described by an affable server as a deconstructed take on a reuben. "I make the pastrami according to Alton Brown's corned beef recipe," Oliveira divulges. "Potassium nitrate keeps the color." He adds that he's using buffalo tongue, although you won't see that listed on the menu.

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For the finished plate, the chef starts with a bed of sharp rye and caraway gnocchi; it supports a generous heap of thin slices of that pastrami, all red velvet-centered and imbued with pepper. Grafton cheddar adds a complementary earthiness, while tart sauerkraut lends a clean bite; taint prickly heat from the mustard in the creme fraiche completes the balancing act. Together, the ingredients invite nostalgia for your favorite deli counter, while standing firmly in the realm of food that you can pair to a sophisticated red wine.

And you should do that, actually. We recommend the Pinot Noir, which enhances the earth and acidity of this plate nicely.

Laura Shunk was Westword's restaurant critic from 2010 to 2012; she's also been food editor at the Village Voice and a dining columnist in Beijing. Her toughest assignment had her drinking ten martinis and eating ten Caesar salads over the course of 48 hours. She still drinks martinis, but remains lukewarm on Caesar salads.